Biography of W S Downs, Clay Co, AR

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From: 
The Goodspeed Biographical and Historical Memoirs of N. E. Ark.
Biographical Information.

W. S. Downs, blacksmith, and one of the skillful workmen of the county, is a
native of Georgia, born in 1848, and the son of Shelly Downs, who was born in
Virginia. The latter was married in his native State, and afterward moved to
Georgia, where the mother died shortly afterward, and where the father died in
1861, leaving a family of three children. W. S. Downs was but thirteen years of
age when his father died, and for three years after this, and during the war, he
drove a team from Atlanta to Bowden, Ga., and was with his teams near Franklin,
Ga. (which is 100 miles from Atlanta), when that city fell into the hands of the
Federal troops. At the age of sixteen Mr. Downs went to work to learn the
carriage and wagon-maker's trade with the firm of J. W. Downs, and afterward
with Downs & Langford, at Conyers, Ga., remaining in their employ for three
years. He then came to Clay County, Ark., where he has resided ever since, with
the exception of about three years, two of which he spent in New Madrid, Mo.,
and one year at his old home, where he worked for Mr. Langford, who was carrying
on the same business. During his stay here six years were spent in the mill
business, the second steam-mill in the county, and he afterward followed farming
until about 1888, when he opened up his old business in Boydsville. He has built
a shop for general repair work, and is having a fair trade. He was married in
1889 to Miss Martha A. Arnold, daughter of Andrew Arnold, of Clay County (but
which at that time was Greene County), and nine children have been the result of
this union, eight now living. They are named as follows: Lenora J., wife of J.
A. Burton, of Tennessee, and the mother of one child; J. H., at home attending
the farm; L. R., at home; William E., J. B., Florence A., Matthew A. and Alvin
Shelly, who is named after his grandfather. Mr. and Mrs. Downs are members of
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and he is a Democrat in politics.